Economy in Brief

EMU money and credit growth in December show signs of making progress. Money is steadily accelerating and rising at a strong 6.7% annual rate over three months. In real terms, money growth is up to an 8.2% annual rate over three [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 265,000 during the week ended January 24 from 308,00 during the prior week, revised from 307,000. It was the lowest level of claims since April 2000. Adjusting for the timing of the [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed reaffirmed its prior view that the U.S. expansion is continuing at a "solid pace." Strong job growth and a low unemployment rate were boosting consumer spending, aided [...]

The overall U.S. unemployment rate in December of 5.6% stood at its six-year low and remained down from 10.0% at the late-2009 peak. Variation in the level of unemployment amongst individual states continues, but a declining trend is [...]

German consumers in February are feeling great, according to GfK. German confidence is on the rise and consumer climate is on a new high in February, according to the forward-looking GfK measure. The rest of Europe is struggling. [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index edged down 3.2% last week (+34.9% y/y) following the near-doubling during the prior three weeks. Applications to refinance retreated 5.1% (+58.4% [...]

Average gasoline prices declined another 3 cents in the week ended January 26 to $2.04 per gallon, the lowest level since April 2009. Prices have fallen by more than one-third during the last year and by nearly one-half since their [...]

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index improved to 102.9 during January from 93.1 in December, revised from 92.6 (1985=100). It was the highest level since August 2007. The latest figure increased by more than one-quarter [...]